Help me cut some pack weight!

[HDwild]

Just looking for input and opinions on where to look next in order to drop weight. I’ve heard good arguments for upgrading/replacing day pack gear first bc it’s always with you but it also makes sense to work on heaviest gear first which pretty much means my shelter and sleep system.

Here’s my gear list from Pack Wizard. This is not my complete list, I know I don’t have everything but this is the major/heaviest stuff besides food and water.

Let me know what moves you’d make if it were your pack! For reference: I mainly hunt the high country in the cascades and PNW. Both archery and rifle, September-November.

HDwild: Archery (28.2lbs / 12.8kg)

Check out my pack on PackWizard!

www.packwizard.com

Photo for attention:

 

[fngTony]

You could swap out some things for lighter options, looks like you’re packing November gear for September? Won’t be cheap but a lighter pad, med kit looks heavy, what lantern @ 10oz?, trekking poles are 7oz heavier than mine but that about a $200 switch, rain jacket is heavy but probably not that bad for where you are, do you need a fanny pack and bino harness?. The rest of your optics looks good, if you dropped weight it would be minimal and possibly compromise on what you like.

Oh and the stove but I don’t know your environment so maybe you can’t go with a pocket rocket or brs as they might suffer in the cool wet weather?

 

[BBob]

What season and temps? I’ll assume early season since it says archery? If so pad, tipee is 2.5lb overweight. Lantern? Ditch it for another 10oz lighter. Those three things are 3 lbs. 0° bag? Way overkill for early season. Could save a bunch there.

 

[Snowhunter11]

Lantern could easily go.. sleep bag and pad seem excessive(@77oz). My SG chillkoot is 35oz and thermarest nxt pad is 17oz. There are probably even lighter if you look around that would suit your specific needs. From the short list you gave those couple things would make up a few pounds. Good luck

 

[Soj51hopeful]

How many extra pounds are you packing on your body?

 

[TaperPin]

I think of weight carried in half day increments. On a six day hunt that’s 12 half days. If a food sack is carried 1/12th it means much less than something carried all the time. Camp is carried 2/12ths, up and back down, or maybe more if you relocate. Following that philosophy, I don’t count the weight of hiking poles unless they are strapped to a pack as dead weight. If 20 oz poles are left at camp if not used other than the hike in and out, it’s much lighter than 16 oz poles carried all the time as dead weight. I could rarely justify a big tripod for the kind of timbered country in the photo, but I can understand if you use it a lot. I’ve also packed a tripod in and left it in camp except for a few days where it did the most good. Don’t feel committed to packing it every day - the effort to get it up the mountain is a sunk cost and shouldn’t influence a decision to pack it any given day. I would still bring a spotter most days and rest it on a pack to verify antler size of a few animals picked up with binoculars, unless it’s a day of still hunting timber then leave the spotting scope at camp and you’ve shaved 2/12ths of its weekly weight off the list.

I enjoy sleeping on a thick pad and warm bag and they are only packed 2/12th of the trip, so it’s not hard to justify. When any weight on a rifle or daypack is thought of as 6x as important as camp weight, it makes decisions more realistic.

If you want to shed the absolute most weight off 6 days of hunting, simply don’t pack camp in or out during the hunt. Anything hauled before or after the hunting days is just conditioning - if it’s a week or the day before, a conditioning trip up the hill with camp, food and water doesn’t even factor into my hunting weights. That doesn’t mean weight isn’t important, but too much effort is spent avoiding effort. If someone is out of shape and barely able to carry 50 lbs, that’s a different story.

 

[HDwild]

Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

1. Tripod: upgrade to carbon fiber with lightweight head

2. Sleep system: get a quilt and a lighter/warmer pad. I went the affordable route here so this shouldn’t be hard to cut weight, just spendy.

3. Shelter: might pick up a lighter tent like a durston x-mid or something.

 

[HDwild]

You could swap out some things for lighter options, looks like you’re packing November gear for September? Won’t be cheap but a lighter pad, med kit looks heavy, what lantern @ 10oz?, trekking poles are 7oz heavier than mine but that about a $200 switch, rain jacket is heavy but probably not that bad for where you are, do you need a fanny pack and bino harness?. The rest of your optics looks good, if you dropped weight it would be minimal and possibly compromise on what you like.

Oh and the stove but I don’t know your environment so maybe you can’t go with a pocket rocket or brs as they might suffer in the cool wet weather?

The lantern was new last year and it was really nice to have in camp, it’s some $10 bi-mart deal. Might leave it at home for some of my longer hikes to camp.

It wasn’t on the list but I keep a pistola in my Fanny pack along with some survival gear, it’s just the best way I’ve found to carry a gun and keep it on me always.

The Soto stove and titanium pot I just picked up, and upgrade from a jetboil that saved me over half a pound. The listed weight is my entire cook kit minus fuel and including a little stuff sack for the stove and a rubberband to keep the pot closed when stored.

 

[HDwild]

How many extra pounds are you packing on your body?

This is usually what I’m chiming in with on some of these lightweight discussions! Not bragging but I’m a very fit guy and I train hard before season and *usually* don’t have much fat on me during the season. That said I am a big dude, for me to weigh under 220lbs I’d be dieting like crazy.

 

[BBob]

It’d be a small gain but if you really want a lantern, switching to a Luci led or a small Black Diamond led would save another 6 ish oz.

 

[fngTony]

This is usually what I’m chiming in with on some of these lightweight discussions! Not bragging but I’m a very fit guy and I train hard before season and *usually* don’t have much fat on me during the season. That said I am a big dude, for me to weigh under 220lbs I’d be dieting like crazy.

Always good to consider what shape we’re in but I don’t put too much on the number itself. I’m 15 pounds heavier than I was three years ago but in much better mountain shape.

 

[Jon Boy]

Going to a quilt and lighter more compact pad would allow you to probably run a 3200 bag which would again save more weight. I'm going to run one this fall and see if I can eek out a 6 day hunt in one. It would cut 8 oz for me over my 6400. Ever sense going to a quilt it saved me a ton of space over my WM bag.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

1. Tripod: upgrade to carbon fiber with lightweight head

2. Sleep system: get a quilt and a lighter/warmer pad. I went the affordable route here so this shouldn’t be hard to cut weight, just spendy.

3. Shelter: might pick up a lighter tent like a durston x-mid or something.

1 & 2 is definitely the biggest bang for your buck. You could easily drop 3-4 pounds. Ditch the lantern and fanny pack, get a holster. I get the fanny pack keeps it on you but it is still not quick access, which is what you will need if you needed it.
Just doing that would get you 5lbs down at least.

 

[LongWayAround]

I second getting a luci lantern in place of what you currently have. It's nice in the tent, and weighs almost nothing. I have let mine charge in the sun and turned it on before I left for an evening hunt. It makes finding the tent easy

 

[Speaks]

The pad and sleeping bag are obvious upgrades. Something like the nemo alpine pad and a FF Flickr quilt would shave some serious weight. I would also ditch the lantern. My med kit weight a lot less though when combined with kill kit maybe not so bad.

 

[Macintosh]

Tripod and head seem heavy unless you are spending all your time and wnergy on glassing. Even then, youre close to 3.5lb—thats pushing front-country weight. You could easily cut a pound off this, 2 if you went really light.
Lighter zero degree bag alone could save close to a pound.
Ditch the lantern entirely—there’s stuffsack-type opaque solutions for this that weigh next to nothing if you really need more than a headlamp.
What is in a 6oz fire kit that isnt already in your cook kit? A few matches and some h20-proof fire-starter weigh an ounce. Between this and the lantern thats another full pound.
A 2.9lb floorless 2-person shelter seems heavy. Is this a full tent or a floorless shelter?

There’s 3-4 lb of savings rigjt there.

 

[Dave0317]

Are you better at spending money or being uncomfortable?

I don’t have much money, so I’ll do things like have a more spartan shelter and pad, that are cheaper and lighter by nature. So for archery for example, I’d bring a CCF sleep pad (14 ounces) and a tarp and bivy (as little as 15 ounces for both, depending on brand.) and maybe even just the tarp if the weather is dry.

A big bonus to going with a tarp, is you can set up pitches without trekking poles, so that saves you more weight if you don’t bring those. I don’t personally hike with them, so using them for a tent or shelter set up turned out to be a false economy.

A lighter sleeping bag won’t be cheap, even if you go for a quilt with a slightly warmer rating. But for $300, you could probably cut your bag to less than half the weight you have in it now.

What’s in your fire kit? A mini bic is light. For back up I carry this:

https://www.amazon.com/UCO-Survival-Striker-Tether-Multitool/dp/B07M8TNHCN?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&gQT=2

I don’t carry tinder, but I’m comfortable finding those materials in the places I hunt. PNW I know stays wet, so you may need a 6 ounce kit. But I know I’d personally bring about 2 ounces of “fire kit”.

Ditch the lantern. I usually only carry a headlamp and a small keychain light.

Lastly, I’d leave the tripod if binos are your main glassing tool. Learn some support techniques using your pack if you need more steadiness than just handheld.

 

[mrbillbrown]

Ditch the lantern and fanny pack. Fast and cheap weight loss. Leave the tripod in the truck. Everything else is gonna start costing money, and potentially, lots of money. Quilt vs bag, lighter shelter, lighter pad, etc. Basically, swapping existing items for lighter, and potentially more expensive replacement items.

 

[Billdoe]

Tripod for 8x binos?

 

[Austink47]

For binoculars only I turn one of my trekking poles into a mono pod and leave the tripod. I am sure there are other options but Tricer makes a good one.